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Treasury Secretary Is Said to Be Thinking of Quitting

WASHINGTON, April 4 - Treasury Secretary John W. Snow has expressed interest in leaving his job in the next several months, a person close to him said Tuesday, as speculation raced through Washington that the White House was seeking Mr. Snow's replacement.

President Bush did little to tamp down the talk after a morning meeting about health care in the Roosevelt Room, where he responded with a tepid endorsement to a question about whether Mr. Snow would stay. The Treasury secretary was in the room as the president spoke.

"Secretary Snow is here at the table," Mr. Bush said. "He's been a part of this discussion. I'm glad you brought him up. He has been a valuable member of my administration, and I trust his judgment and appreciate his service."

When Mr. Bush has been asked in the past about whether Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would remain in his job, he has spoken out more forcefully and enthusiastically.

Several prominent Republicans who consult regularly with the White House said on Tuesday that Joshua B. Bolten, the president's incoming chief of staff, was interested in a replacement for Mr. Snow who could more powerfully communicate the administration's message that the American economy is strong.

Another Republican who is in close contact with the West Wing staff said White House officials were expecting Mr. Snow to step down.

"They're waiting for Snow to do the right thing," the Republican said. "They thought he would have gotten the message right now and submitted his resignation."

The Republicans and the person close to Mr. Snow were granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations and thinking within the administration.

Mr. Snow's spokesman, Tony Fratto, declined to comment.

Speculation about Mr. Snow's departure has ebbed and flowed for more than a year but has intensified since Mr. Bush announced last week that Mr. Bolten would be his new chief of staff. Mr. Bolten, who once worked at Goldman Sachs, is said to be interested in filling the Treasury post with someone from Wall Street who could help reassure financial markets worried about record-high budget and trade deficits.

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Although Mr. Bush has been resistant to a Treasury secretary from the investment and financial worlds, Republicans say that he is less so now and that he recognizes that his economic team needs more credibility.

Names circulating in Republican circles as possibilities for the Treasury job include Stanley O'Neal, the chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

Some Republicans questioned whether either man would be seriously interested in the Treasury post, which in this White House has not been the powerhouse position it was when Robert E. Rubin held it under President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Bush's Treasury secretaries -- Paul H. O'Neill, the former chief executive of Alcoa, was Mr. Snow's predecessor -- have not had their own voices on economic matters and have been effectively subordinate to Karl Rove, the president's political adviser and deputy chief of staff. Although Mr. Bolten has told associates that he wants to overhaul his economic team, it is unclear if he wants to change its basic structure.

Mr. Snow, who has been in the job for three years, has long said he will return to the private sector at an appropriate time. The person close to Mr. Snow who said that the secretary was interested in stepping down in the next several months appeared to be reflecting that thinking, but also appeared to be defensively positioning Mr. Snow so that any resignation could be portrayed as his own.

In his remarks in the Roosevelt Room, Mr. Bush indicated that he had given Mr. Bolten a strong hand to reorganize the White House, but only so far as he approved. Republicans have criticized the departing chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., as fatigued and slow to react to national crises over the past year, including Hurricane Katrina.

"I told Josh that he is -- will organize the White House in such a way that he is comfortable with and that meets my needs," Mr. Bush said. "And my needs are to have good, crisp information so I can make decisions on behalf of the American people."

Mr. Bolten is to take over on April 14, and the president said he looked forward to his recommendations on "how to get this White House for the last two and a half years of my administration to continue to function in an effective way."

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A version of this article appears in print on April 5, 2006, on Page A00012 of the National edition with the headline: Treasury Secretary Is Said to Be Thinking of Quitting. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe